Studies in Colonial Nationalism

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. ... CHAPTER XIV THE SOUL OF THE EMPIRE In every man there is something which matters more than the rest of him to the world. With that part of you, Rudyard Kipling, I have been intimate ever since first you made it manifest. You were the seer through whom the soul of the Empire found utterance. You were the prophet of imperial truth, the singer who "knew and touched it in the ends of all the earth." In the ends of the earth I too knew that truth and touched it, and then I knew you for a true prophet. Therefore in dull, ephemeral prose I repeat the message, as I heard it, of your immortal song. Further, I proclaim you the rightful doyen of imperial bards; not, perhaps, by seniority, but because you alone were comprehensive. For the soul of the Empire is not one, but two; and you alone were the interpreter of both. The one is the yearning of "the Four New Nations," their awakening patriotism, which you expressed for them in "The Nativeborn," before it had found a voice of its own. When you spoke, they knew that you had touched the truth, and took you to their hearts thenceforth. The other soul is our nation's faith in its special life-task, which you revealed, primarily for the Americans, in "The White Man's Burden." The unbeliever laughs. He remembers only a parody in Truth or the Bulletin. Any fool can parody a simple gospel, and make another fool laugh. I have listened, beyond the seas, to the bards of the Native-born. Some of them were singing of "The Brave Days to be ";1 when the Old Country shall have gone to the 1 Maoriland and other Verses. A. H. Adams. dogs, while the young ones rejoice as giants to run their "And while my lusty land Felt in her veins the triumphant sap, and heard The wonder of the Spring shout in her heart,...